Altair designer Moshe Safdie receives America’s highest architectural honour

The Altair high-rise under construction

Moshe Safdie, the architect of Sri Lanka’s Altair high-rise luxury residential development, has been honoured with the 2015 Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the institute’s highest honour, for his contribution to global architecture.

Announcing the award, presented at the 2015 AIA Convention in Atlanta in May, Altair promoter Indocean Developers said Sri Lanka could be proud to have an iconic and representative work of Safdie on its soil, and that generations of residents would be honoured to live in a building designed by one of the most revered architects of all time.

Moshe Safdie’s body of work over 50 years includes Marina Bay Sands – the new icon of Singapore, the Kauffman Centre for the Performing Arts in Kansas City – rated one of the 15 most spectacular concert halls of the world, and ‘Habitat 67’ in Montreal, the first project that brought him global recognition.

Other distinguishing architectural masterpieces designed by Safdie include the Crystal Bridge Museum of American Art in Arkansas, the Khalsa Heritage Centre in Punjab, the headquarters of the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC, Lester B. Pearson Airport, Toronto, the Yad Vasham Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem, Cairnhill Condominiums in Singapore, the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

The AIA’s Gold Medal acknowledges an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. 

Honouring him for his ‘comprehensive and humane approach to designing public and cultural spaces across the world’, the American Institute of Architects said Moshe Safdie has touched millions of people and influenced generations of younger architects. In his nomination letter, President of the Boston Society of Architects Mike Davis said: “Moshe Safdie has continued to practice architecture in the purest and most complete sense of the word, without regard for fashion, with a hunger to follow ideals and ideas across the globe in his teaching, writing, practice and research.”

“Altair’s credo is that it must offer much more than omnibus apartments and ancillary services,” said Indocean Developers Director Pradeep Moraes. “It is intended to represent the definition of luxury high-rise living, and the iconic architecture of Moshe Safdie is a very important part of the package. Which other building in Sri Lanka can boast of an illustrious global architect of the calibre of Moshe Safdie?”

In a recent interview, Moshe Safdie said he believes that architectural design must be specific to place, and that in his continuing work, his goal is to ‘re-invent the public realm’. Projected to be a game changer in contemporary living in Sri Lanka, Altair will bring a new dimension in aesthetics to Colombo’s skyline. It is intended to be a one-of-its-kind development in South Asia in terms of architectural design, structural engineering, and living experience. 

Comprising of two tower blocks, one of 63 storeys which leans in to a taller, 68-storey tower, Altair will offer its 400 apartments spectacular views of the Beira Lake, the Indian Ocean and the city of Colombo. The development’s 1.5 million square feet of high-end eco-friendly living space will be supported by 40,000 square feet of supportive up-market retail space. The project is scheduled for completion in 2017.